Strange thing about ping to your chosen server.

[Dramatic Exit 62]

Now, a few of us who have been playing together have run across a really strange thing.

The higher your ping to the server you connect to is, the lower your frames per second.

For example, connecting to US 138 - I have a ping of about 90ms. My frames per second drops to something close to 15fps. If I connect to a UK based server, I have a ping of 16 to 20ms, and my frames per second heads back up to about 50fps or so. Is this a known issue?

It's highly frustrating for those of us who chose to play together, because we're from all over the place. I'm from the UK, some people are from the west coast of America, one of us is in Latvia, one Dutchman, and an Italian. This means we generally try to play on east coast american servers as it is more or less the midpoint between us. We all get a a ping which is higher than we'd like, but it's workable and playable.

The issue with FPS dropping in accordance with ping rising is something we've only noticed over the last few days, and it seems downright weird to me. I fail to see how my connection to a server has anything to do with my computer's ability to run the game.

Edited July 17, 2012 by Dramatic Exit

[Aitloian 11]

errrr, that is the case with most games and its why ping exists. It measures your distance from the server the farther away you are (higher ping) the longer the signals take to bounce back and forth. Most games you don't notice but things like ARMA which runs crappy to begin with it makes a difference. If anyone is familiar with DOTA ping makes such a huge difference in gameplay.

[Benlandia 73]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_(networking_utility)

[Dramatic Exit 62]

I am well aware of the fact that your ping essentially measures the time it takes to send a signal to and from a server. That is something that is more than clear to me. What I fail to understand is why that makes the blindest difference to my framerate. Seeing things jumping about, players, NPCs and so on, while the game in general continues to run perfectly normally... That is what I would expect.

Walking around in the middle of nowhere and getting very choppy framerate just looking at the scenery with nobody else around, just because my ping is high, is not what I would expect.

Your ping (time it takes for signal to reach server and then get back to you) has an impact on things which move or their position is determined by the server. You would essentially be behind what is happening in real time on the server. Cool. That has an impact on pvp and pve, because the stuff you are shooting at is not where you think it is.

That is a different issue to the whole god damned game running slowly on my machine while connected to a server that is a distance away.

Edited July 17, 2012 by Dramatic Exit